Happy Routes and the Half-Alone Prince: some thoughts
I caught Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (rendered above in unfixed T9) Wednesday morning circa 12:01 a.m., the first showing at Pullman's nice theatre. My friend Kelsey invited me along, and then bought nachos and soda and Reese's Pieces.
Briefly, my experience with the multimedia franchise: I haven't read any of the books. (I think I might start once the last film is out, in 2011.) I've seen all of the films, now. The first was excellent. I mean, really, it was exciting, compelling, a real treat. The second is sort of ruined for me by Dobby, who was terrible. The rest have been mediocre-to-bad.
But this new one was all right. Like I said, I saw it late and so maybe I wasn't thinking as clearly as I could've, but I thought it was the most legit since the first. We showed up at 10:30 p.m., and we found ourselves near the end of the line (which is tautological, but I mean that it was still near the end of the line an hour and a half later).
Lots of dressed-up nerds attended, and tons of kids who were dropped off by their folks, things of that nature. I'm at peace with the Harry Potter phenomenon, though I once loathed it. I look forward to reading it through in a few years.
Nachos review: so good. So, so good.